Italy to Santiago II Part 1, Day 2: Ronsecco - Lamporo

May I walk always in straight ways and shining to longed-for places 

- St. Gildas, A Pilgrim Prayer (516-570)

Today's path was straight through shining rice fields. With a stop at a rice-growing farm with a restaurant, for the best risotto I've ever eaten!

Antonio gave us a lift from Vercelli back to Ronsecco, where we left off walking yesterday, and we continued out of the village and onto a gravel road through the fields, heading toward the cooling towers of a distant power plant. 

We passed by Tenuta Darola, a castle built in 1457 and later converted into a large farming estate. Turning onto another dirt road through the fields, we spotted a patch of fluorescent orange in the distance and speculated whether it might be a traffic cone marking a pothole in the road, or a construction worker in a bright orange uniform. But it turned out to be a walker in a fluorescent orange t-shirt, sitting beside the road taking a break. Helena is Swedish and set out from Turin to walk to Rome, taking a detour along the Way of St. Francis to Florence, La Verna and Assisi on the way. We stopped and talked for a few minutes, took a selfie together, hugged, wished each other Buon Cammino and resumed walking in opposite directions.

As we passed another estate, Castelmerlino, we crossed paths with two Italian women on the final stage of their walk from the Mongenèvre pass to Vercelli. They had shared the pilgrim hostel in Lamporo with Helena the previous night, and told us it was a couple of hours' walk away.

By now we were very close to the power plant, where we turned onto a beautiful grassy path between two irrigation canals. Tiny black frogs hopped across the path and splashed into one or the other of the canals, while African sacred ibises rose into flight as we approached - huge white birds with a curved black bill and black wingtips. Their feathers dotted our path, as did the discarded shells of the crayfish that are their favourite food.

At noon on the dot, we found ourselves outside the restaurant at Tenuta Colombara, an estate where they not only grow rice but cook and serve it, with a menu consisting almost entirely of different varieties of risotto. The estate is on the site of a former pilgrim hostel; yet another sign that we were fated to go in and order a classic risotto al prosecco e parmigiano! 

The estate also rents rooms, but after polishing off an entire pot of deliciously creamy, cheesy risotto, we continued on along the canal for another six kilometres to the pilgrim hostel in Lamporo, where we were expected. The hostel is staffed during the summer months by volunteers from the association we belong to, Accoglienza Pellegrina. This week's volunteer is a local, and as he knows Mariella, who spent a week volunteering in the hostel a few years ago, he instructed us to pick up the keys at the local café, let ourselves in and make ourselves at home. Which we did, helping ourselves to cold drinks from the fridge, showering and running our clothes through the washing machine. 

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Ronsecco - Lamporo 18.5 km